After playing really well for the first 40 minutes and mirroring Ballygunner’s shape for much of that time, St. Martin's are starting to struggle. Maybe it’s because of fatigue but they've gone away from what was working for them and are now going man-to-man all over the pitch, which is playing right into Ballygunner’s hands.
In the first half, St. Martin’s were working the ball back and scoring from distance, rather than hitting it into Ballygunner’s half, where there were often 13 Ballygunner players. Now, they’re sending it into a forward line where there is almost no space.
Additionally, in the first half, St. Martin’s half-back line was happy to stay in zonal positions, and weren’t overly bothered that Ballygunner’s half-forward line were dropping back. They had support from their own half-forward line, which made it more effective. Ballygunner really had to earn those scores in the first 40, which is the direct opposite now.
Ballygunner are a class team and are likely to win the club championship, but it’s so much easier for them when they have so much space in front of their full-forward line, and there is so little space in front of their full-back line. They enjoyed that benefit in all of their Munster matches and the last 20 minutes of this game.
